Bri Gelsinger

Co-Program Manager and On-Site Qualified Professional

Bri attended Fresno State in California for five years, studying for her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies and in the Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling program. After school, she worked for 5 years with a nonprofit in Arizona, where she ran a day program for adults with severe mental illness. Although she LOVED her job, she wasn’t happy living in Arizona, and she took a year to figure out where she wanted to make her next home. She traveled all over the country, working on organic farms and living out of her car. During that time, she visited Asheville, and within 24 hours, she knew she wanted to make it her forever home.

When she’s not working at Open Hearts, Bri is an artist, focusing on painting. She is passionate about the arts, since it has played such a major role in her life. Bri shares, “Art has always been a way for me to express myself and work through whatever it was that was troubling me. To me, life is like a canvas. You can paint whatever you’d like on it. If you decide it doesn’t work for you anymore, you can start all over again and paint something new. I am so happy to have found Open Hearts and am excited to see where this journey takes me.”